Yaghnobi People - Genetics

Genetics

The Yaghnobi NRY portrait is one dominated by the presence of Haplogroup R - likely arising in Central Asia during the Upper Paleolithic period and carried westward into the heart of Europe - and of R1a1, a sublineage associated with Central/Southern Eurasians and evidently related to the bronze age or to early Iranic expansion into the area c. 3000 BCE. The next most important Y-DNA contribution to the Yaghnobi is that of haplogroup J2, associated with the spread of agriculture in, and from, the neolithic Near East. Also found at a considerable frequency is haplogroup L, which may be subcontinental in origin.